title: Effects of carbamazepine on spinal cord ischemia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Prophylactic treatment with carbamazepine has been shown to reduce the cerebral damage and neurologic deficit in ischemic conditions. A randomized controlled study based on a rabbit model was designed to study the effect of carbamazepine on a spinal cord ischemic reperfusion injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty New Zealand rabbits were randomly assigned to 1 of the 2 groups (n = 15 per group): group I (control group) and group II (carbamazepine group). Spinal cord ischemia was induced by infrarenal aortic crossclamp for 25 minutes in both groups. Functional evaluation with the Tarlov score during a 2-day observation period and histopathologic assessment of the lumbar spinal cord were performed. Changes in spinal cord morphology were observed with hematoxylin-eosin staining and electron microscopy. Gray matter damage was assessed on the basis of the number of normal neurons in the ventral horn.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Diffuse destruction of gray matter with moderate to severe vacuolization and essentially no normal ganglion cells was observed in the spinal cord of rabbits in the control group, whereas specimens of rabbits assigned to the carbamazepine group showed ganglion cells with normal nuclei and cytoplasm (P < .0001). Neurologic impairment was significantly attenuated in the carbamazepine group compared with the Tarlov scores of the control group (P < .0001 at day 2).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Carbamazepine may protect the spinal cord from ischemic reperfusion injury that is associated with ameliorated neurologic and histopathologic results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sirlak
authors.forename: Sadik
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eryilmaz
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bahadir Inan
authors.forename: Yusuf Sinan
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Sirin
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Besalti
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yazicioglu
authors.forename: Evren
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ozcinar
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Erdemli
authors.forename: Refik
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tasoz
authors.forename: Atilla Halil
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Elhan
authors.forename: Bulent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kaya
authors.forename: Umit
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ozyurda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D002220:Carbamazepine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D011336:Probability; D011817:Rabbits; D011897:Random Allocation; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D020760:Spinal Cord Ischemia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D002220:Carbamazepine